Tuesday, February 28, 2012

So yeah, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? There have been some ups and downs. Last fall, we lost both my uncle and Pete’s grandmother (who had just turned 100 in June). And last month, Pete was laid off, meaning we are both currently unemployed and job hunting. On the up side, the holidays were nice, we are both healthy and happy, and some good opportunities have come our way.

As for knitting . . . . well, there hasn’t been all that much of that. I was dealing with some wrist pain last fall that prevented me from knitting for more than five or ten minutes at a time. That seems to have cleared up, although I’m pretty sure I have frozen shoulder now. As painful as it is, I’m glad to find it doesn’t hinder my knitting as much as the wrist pain did. So guess what that means? It means . . . .

I finally finished a pair of socks!!!! Yay!!! I was originally knitting these for my ballroom dance teacher, but unfortunately we decided to take a break from our lessons before I finished them. And now she’s left the studio, so if we go back she won’t be there anyway. (And considering we have no jobs right now, going back is off the table for a while.) So my “Socks for Juliet” are now my “Socks (not) for Juliet”.

So. These socks. They are pretty enough. I love the cable pattern on the leg, but the seed stitch on the foot makes the whole thing a little too busy. If I were to ever knit these again, I’d keep the ribbing on the foot but ditch the seed stitch for some stockinette. That said, this pattern was such a mess that even with the corrections I found I needed to re-write and re-chart the whole thing anyway. Maybe I was just too dense to understand the instructions? Could be. And the pattern was free so I can’t complain too much. But it wasn’t my favorite.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Hurricane Irene hammered my little costal town over the weekend. Luckily we came through safely with very little damage.

On the downside, we're going on twenty four hours with no power. Not to mention the wire the fell from our house yesterday evening and is drooping precariously close to traffic coming down the street - the garbage trucks barely cleared it this morning. The fact that the crews haven't been by yet to fix it is probably a bad sign. News reports are saying it could take a full week to restore power to everyone.

Thank goodness for my iPhone, which has kept us from feeling cut off from the rest of the world. (My laptop is now simply a large iPhone charging device.) Thank goodness also for my neighbor with a generator who remembered that I'm diabetic. He came over yesterday to take my spare insulin and will store it in his refrigerator until our power is back. It may have lasted the outage, but better safe than sorry - or better safe than insulinless.

I hope all is well in your corner of the world. Until the power is back, you'll find me knitting and reading and cleaning (but not vacuuming).

Friday, August 05, 2011

Have you forgotten I existed? Have I been away too long for you to remember me? Yup, out of sight, out of mind, right?

Well, the same goes for knitting!! I suppose it would come as no surprise if I fess up that my knitting dry spell has stretched on through the summer. It’s not that I don’t think of knitting often. It’s not that I don’t admire my pretty yarn and dream of the projects I’ll knit up. It’s not that I don’t long for yarn running through my fingers. Because trust me, I do.

Maybe part of the problem is that I’m just too darn neat. I’ve got my WIPs tucked away in project bags, all tidy and organized. And since I don’t see them, I tend to forget about them when stolen bits of knitting time are presented. Because, you know, out of sight, out of mind.

So I decided to loosen up a bit. I pulled out my sock project and left it splayed out on the living room table. And I found rows are getting knitted here and there. A few rounds got done while the morning coffee was brewing. It rode along to the train station for some knitting while I waited for Pete’s train.

It may not be much, but it’s a step in the right direction!! And it helped get knitting back on my mind!

Monday, February 07, 2011

This morning started much like any other Monday. The alarm clock went off way too early. I packed a lunch for Pete, threw on some sweats, and headed out to drive him to the train station. As we neared the end of our street, I heard Pete yell. Then I heard a crunch. Then the car began to spin and I realized it was no longer under my control. Luckily, this all happened in a flash and before I knew it our poor car was wedged into the snow and ice on the side of the road. We were stuck, but we were both just fine. Everyone in the other car was fine too.

My blood sugars stayed amazingly stable throughout the ordeal. I knew that once the adrenaline subsided and the stress took over, they were likely to skyrocket. But I can take it. All that matters is that everyone involved in the accident is fine. And now that I am starting to feel completely frazzled? I’m going to grab my knitting and let it sooth me. It really is the best therapy around!

What do you think non-knitters do after a crisis? (Probably drink . . . )